


The Dragon Learns Of Love

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [20]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Ancient History, Dragons, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Fantasy, Father Figures, Flash Fic, Gen, Gods, Love, Medieval, Microfic, Original Character(s), Originally Posted Elsewhere, Shapeshifting, Siblings, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22372441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: The dragon emerged from the mountainside. He did not know how to acquire this love, but he would. Thinking on it—turning it over within him—the idea of love came naturally, with all its warmth and ache.***An ancient creature craves something new.
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 9





	The Dragon Learns Of Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in January 2020. It has been given fairly moderate edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️ 
> 
> **SUGGESTED RE-READING:** Another tale that stands alone! But you can read Amaderu's first appearance in ["Dragon, Dragonfly."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22056346)
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

The dragons, historians now know, were born all at once long ago. To such a race, youth is not a matter of years but of heart and mind. And so the golden dragon Amaderu was considered quite young indeed among his peers. While his fellows spent millennia searching for a narrative that explained their origin—and piecing back together the meteor from which they may have emerged—Amaderu collected wealth.

Dragons enjoy collecting, as you know. They often fixate on gathering whatever trinkets, baubles, toys, and tomes they believe support their theories on the birth of their race. (In short, they debate with Things.) It has to be assumed that they understand the greatest wisdom science could ever give us—that material goods often surpass material evidence. 

Especially when you have quite a lot of said goods.

If Amaderu wanted, he could rule all of dragonkind. He spent his time among the other races, procuring gold and property and sometimes whole armies—though he knew not what to do with them. He just wanted to have, have, have, and to sleep, and not think. It was comforting, in such an uncertain world. He did not want to argue.

His fellows thought this very immature. In fact, they sealed him away within his mountain as he rested one day, collapsing it shut.

"With time," they said, "and thought, you will realize you must help our people, not play among the small ones. We will fetch you when we know you are ready."

***

As he waited for eons in the dark among his coins, rather disgruntled, Amaderu dreamed of many things. Stars falling, for example. A strange needful feeling he could not parse. A massive golden boar, winged and fierce, its eyes ablaze.

Amaderu thought it rubbish, until the boar in his dreams began to speak to him:

_BOY. ARE YOU DENSE?_

"Excuse me," said the dragon. "I would like to pass at least one century without an insult to my intelligence, thank you. Begone, ghost."

Said the boar, _DO YOU NOT KNOW YOUR FATHER WHEN YOU SEE HIM?_

"Apparently not," Amaderu replied, his insides softening. 

That terrible, urgent sensation flowed through the dragon's body again—that needful hurt, as if something had been missing.

 _YOU'RE THE ONE CAME OUT LAST, AREN'T YOU, BOY?_ the boar asked.

"I do not recall offhand. The memory of our birth has faded..." 

_YES! BOY. YOU'RE THE ONE. THERE'S MORE OF YOU IN ME THAN SHE._

"Who?"

_YOUR SIBLINGS ARE MADE OF SKY AND FLAME, LIKE THEIR MOTHER. YOU ARE EARTH, LIKE ME. AND YOUR SISTER IN THE WATERS..._

In this dream, when the dragon turned his head, he saw not a boar but a multitude: worms, badgers, soil. Earthquakes, volcanoes. Cliffsides, deserts. Then: a boar, again.

"Father, I do not care for any of them. If this is your method of pushing me to leave this cavern—" 

_LEAVE THIS CAVERN, BOY,_ said the great earth-being, _BUT NOT FOR THEM. FOR YOU. I WAS ONCE LIKE YOU. I TOOK LIFE, BLOOD. BUT GREED COULD NOT FEED ME, NOR CONFLICT._

"Then?"

_ONLY LOVE._

They both turned to the sky, where a great meteor flew towards the horizon. 

_Ah,_ thought Amaderu, upon awaking. _Love._

He turned, and saw that the entrance to his cavern had opened, and blinked against the light. How long had he slept? How long had his siblings held him captive?

Well. No matter.

The dragon emerged from the mountainside. He did not know how to acquire this love, but he would. Thinking on it—turning it over within him—the idea of love came naturally, with all its warmth and ache. Amaderu didn't realize he could want something more than wealth and land and people, but, ah, he did. He did. 

Perched at the entrance of his cavern, the golden dragon waited for the stars to bloom above him. Then he flew.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos or whatever the heck if this tickled your fancy. There shall be more! ❤️ Also, please let me know what other characters, relationships, or places you'd like to hear about. I have lots of ideas, but I'd enjoy writing a few stories for y'all as well.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** I think this is the first story where Amaderu is named? I can't recall. But he was the last of the mainline figures to get a name. I feel a little bad, considering he's on [the frigging Second Starfall logo.](https://i.imgur.com/vAKyDL2.png) Our poor abused lizard-man.
> 
> All dragon names end in -ru, BTW. Kind-of stolen from McCaffrey's Pern series, but also kind-of stolen from the Dragon Aspects in World of Warcraft, who tend to have name schemes too.


End file.
